How does regular mindfulness practice affect your academic performance?

Alongside enhanced focus, regular mindfulness practice will enable you to create capacity within your mind. As a result of doing this, you can then use this capacity and apply it to your academic tasks. This, in turn, will increase the effectiveness of your performance. I find that both macro and micro mindfulness practices help create this capacity. Macro practices could include longer, seated meditation practice such as open awareness, breath awareness or loving kindness meditation. Micro practices could include mindful eating, deep breathing before each email or even a short walking meditation during your breaks.

In addition to the obvious benefits already mentioned here, for me, mindfulness supports the reflective practice process which allows for the cultivation of fresh perspectives.

Regular mindfulness practice, comprising attention, awareness, and non-judgment, significantly enhances academic performance. It cultivates focused attention, heightens cognitive abilities, and reduces stress. By fostering self-awareness and emotional regulation, mindfulness facilitates effective learning and problem-solving. Moreover, it nurtures a non-judgmental mindset, promoting resilience and adaptability in academic endeavors.

Mindfulness practice improves focus, concentration, memory, learning, stress management, problem-solving skills, time management, self-regulation, interpersonal relationships, and resilience. It trains the mind to stay present, enhancing learning and retention. Mindfulness reduces stress and anxiety, promotes emotional resilience, and enhances problem-solving skills. It also improves time management, fosters empathy, and fosters resilience. By incorporating mindfulness into daily routines, students can optimize their academic potential and achieve greater success in their studies.

Para mi uno de los beneficios principales del mindfulness es la concentración y la capacidad que da a nuestra mente de estar calmada antes de accionar. Cuando practicas la presencia o atención plena en el estudio se podrá tener mayor enfoque en el estudio y la actividad que se esta haciendo eliminando las distracciones y creando mejores y mayores conexiones de esa información.

As a student who is following mindfulness in life has a great chance to avoid or minimise stress. Because students are already busy with studies, exams, extracurricular activities, maintaining hobbies and social life. With the help of mindfulness such as daily morning meditation and journaling can help them regulate their mind making them feel content and focus. By including a mindfulness exercise, students can achieve better results.

I found mindfulness techniques my best friend meanwhile writing my bachelor's and master's thesis, writing tests, or writing assignments. When we are in stressful or time-sensitive situations often we experience mind fog or many thoughts at once. By taking a step back, calming your nervous system by breathing, and anchoring to the present moment you can create the SPACE. Your physiological processes will slow down and you can access your mind in a calm state. Better focus on the task, memory what you need to find, or simple flow in your writing.

Totalmente de acuerdo con esto tambien. Muchas veces los nervios, el miedo, la angustia hacen que se pierda el foco en lo que se ha aprendido y es importante. Esto por mucho que se haya dedicado tiempo a estudiar hace que se olvide o distorsione. Estar en calma y en presencia contribuye con mejores resultados al momento de organizar y presentar la información adquirida.

In his flagship book, Full Catastrophe Living, Dr. Kabat-Zinn describes in detail the physiology of the fight-or-flight reaction on our human body (2013). The “habitual or autonomic” stress reaction involves the following organs: hypothalamus, pituitary gland, adrenals, autonomic nervous system, and the immune system. However, “chronic hyper arousal” comes about due to maladaptive coping and dysregulation, the symptoms of which include: arrhythmias, sleep disorders, chronic headaches and backaches, anxiety, panic, and inflammation. Down the road this leads to further physical and psychological exhaustion, depression / burnout, and genetic predispositions to disease manifesting at a more rapid speed.

On the flipside, the same diagram revised by Dr. Kabat-Zinn describes the mindfulness-mediated stress response; which also affects the: hypothalamus, pituitary gland, adrenals, autonomic nervous system, and the immune system; although to a lesser extent. Furthermore, the mindfulness-mediated stress reaction includes: “possible arousal, but also an awareness of the body: breathing, sensations, awareness of thoughts and emotions, greater acceptance; awareness of the full context, emotions-focused strategies, seeing new options, quick recovery of mental equilibrium and allostasis” (2013). The second alternative stress response undoubtedly sounds like a way better option!

Memory is tied to our ability to pay attention on purpose. Guillen and Ribera outline that mindfulness practice not only makes our ability to pay attention stronger, but it also improves our “working memory, which is needed to retain information in the mind while doing complex tasks such as reasoning, understanding and learning” (2014). Therefore, by operating in the present moment, we are better able to deduct and discern the information that is relevant and available, and make better choices and decisions based on that.

EI refers to the ability to recognize, understand, and manage our own emotions, as well as the emotions of others. It is a key factor in building successful relationships, coping with stress, and making sound decisions. Research has shown that individuals with high emotional intelligence tend to have better academic performance, as they are able to handle challenges and setbacks more effectively. Regular mindfulness practice can enhance focus and concentration, allowing students to pay attention to their studies without being easily distracted. Mindfulness practices such as deep breathing exercises and meditation can help reduce stress and anxiety levels.

With practice of mindfulness you develop emotional resilience and are able to keep environmental negativity at a distance from impacting your life, You are able to practice detachment and look at things from a neutral position hence able to keep the focus and concentration intact on your goals.

Viktor Frankl in his book Man’s Search for Meaning described our human “capacity to cognitively change the meaning of what is happening (...) as the most essential personal freedom” (2014).

The role of sleep in academic performance (and life in general) is extremely important. By practicing good sleep hygiene (low lighting, uncluttered bedroom, natural fibre sheets, no screens for at least 30 mins before bedtime) you are supporting your wellbeing. Mindfulness exercises like body scan, guided sleep meditations, or apps with sleep sounds can do much to help academic performance.

Mindfulness Vs Non - Mindfulness I order to appreciate the true power of mindfulness ?? , one has to truly experience it through experimentation. A particular topic or chapter from any academic subject can be chosen for this purpose. It could be done on an individual or a group. In case of an individual, a before and after methodology can be used to gauge his performance. In case of a group, one group with mindfulness and the other without it can be evaluated. There will be a marked difference in the performance in both the scenarios. Regular Mindfulness practice has been proven to enrich the experience, without a shadow of doubt ??

Another important and under-appreciated aspect of mindfulness is that it can help reduce cognitive bias. I have found that this has served me well during my academic research as I recognise my biases much more easily than before I used to practise. This has enabled me to be much more impartial and objective, committed to doing my best work without attachment to being right, proving my point or misrepresenting findings. This is especially important when engaging in postgraduate research.